I work in publishing and I like to read things. Herewith: free association on books, nice things I ate, publishing, editing, and other nice things I ate.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Robert the Publisher's Gem of the Day

RtP: When one is undertaking a book contract, one must proceed with great caution. Have you ever seen a raccoon walk? It takes one step forward, then two steps back. Then two steps forward, then one step back. Then it walks sideways. [Visual aid for you] Much can be learned from observing the animal kingdom, you know. They are all parallels for us right here.

I you can find it, I highly recommend James Thurber's Let Your Mind Alone -- his take on the popular psychologists of the day.

In one of the pieces, JT is reviewing a self-help book whose author describes an indecisive person identified only as "Mr. C." Thurber notes that Mr. C's behavior sounds an awful lot like his neighborhood squirrel, "Mr. S," who when confronted by a gigantic machine rumbling in his direction doesn't just run across the street (or back to the curb, for that matter) but hesitates, wavers, and jumps back and forth before being saved (fingers crossed) by a quick-witted driver.

Believe it or not, I used to have a pet racoon. A family down the street from where I grew up used to raise them. His name was Ricky. We had a leash to walk him and used a bottle to feed him when he was a baby.

I never remember him walking like the way RtP describes, but they are VERY clean animals. They wash their food before eating. He used to love mini-marshmellows. He'd take one to his water bowl, roll it a bit, then eat it. He did this with all of his food. It was really cute to watch.